The 'continuing present' is a lesson Pragmatism tried to teach the late nineteenth century about knowledge, but it remains a lesson inconvenient to a largely still positivist world. Appropriately, the theoretical analysis of educational policy in this article is based on Pragmatism, which is enjoying a revival of interest in education in Australia and the USA. As will be shown, much of the rhetoric of New Labour education policy in the United Kingdom - especially comments from Tony Blair about his beliefs and expectations-reflect the same type and level of optimism and social contract that emerged out of the industrial and political revolutions of the 1800s. In this regard, New Labour education policy might be considered a new conservatism.